CRYPTOCURRENCY trading website Binance has pulled its services out of Nigeria.
The trading platform asked Nigerians trading on its platform to remove all their naira assets, indicating that it is terminating its services in the country.
To address the extreme volatility in the foreign exchange market, the Federal Government has been taking harsh measures against Binance management in recent weeks.
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In response to the severe actions taken against it by the Nigerian government, Binance on Tuesday, March 5, deleted all assets linked to the naira.
The platform informed users to trade their naira assets or convert them into crypto before the discontinuation of its services in the country.
Binance stated that from “2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT based on the conversion rate.”
The action follows the Nigerian government’s accusation that Binance was playing a huge role in the Nigerian foreign exchange crisis.
Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, was threatened with an arrest order on Monday, March 4, by the House of Representatives.
This was after the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) had arrested two executives from Binance in Nigeria last week while responding to an invitation from the Nigerian government.
The company’s representatives were summoned to testify before the House committee, but they did not respond.
The committee’s chairperson, Ginger Onwusibe, stated that the members had decided not to receive any representation from anyone other than the Binance executives.
The government has asked the cryptocurrency platform to pay $10 billion to settle claims that it manipulated foreign exchange rates and depreciated the value of the naira relative to the dollar.
This occurred amid increasing animosity between Binance and the Nigerian government regarding the company’s operations.
Meanwhile, a crypto analyst, Obinna Iwuno, says traders on Binance are not nameless as they can be traced.
Iwuno, the President of the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria, said this while appearing on Channels Television’s breakfast show, The Morning Brief, on Tuesday, March 5.
Iwuno was responding to an allegation by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, that $26 billion in dubious transfers went through Binance in the previous year.
“I am a certified cryptocurrency investigator. I am also a certified cryptocurrency compliance specialist. I can tell you that these things are traceable. You cannot perform a transaction, as long as it passes through the blockchain, that cannot be traced,” he stated.
Iwuno stated that his organisation had opposed dishonest businesspeople and had developed numerous programmes to suppress those who engage in unethical behaviour.
A reporter with the ICIR
A Journalist with a niche for quality and a promoter of good governance